Community Engaged Colon Cancer Screening Patient Navigator Program

The goal of the project is to increase colorectal cancer screening within the priority population of female and male adults age 50 to 85 in Northern Nevada. A successful community-based cancer patient navigator program will be modified in partnership with the community into a multi-level screening intervention. A well-tested behavioral change theory (the health belief model; HBM) will guide the intervention and the relative efficacy of a) the theory's constructs and b) evidence-based intervention practices on increasing screening rates will be examined. Although increased screening rates are associated with program navigators, it is unclear which program components are related to the outcome. In addition, there is ambiguity surrounding a) the temporal impact of the HBM on cancer screening and b) the relationships among the model's constructs. A quasi-experimental time-series design will be used to evaluate the outcome objective of increased screening rates by comparing screening rates one year pre- and post-intervention and whether navigated patients are better prepared for screening than non-navigated patients. A minimum of 315 participants (to correspond with a power level of .80) in the navigator program will be surveyed on knowledge about colorectal cancer, and satisfaction with and usefulness of the program. The anticipated contribution of the project will be to increase community efficacy, colorectal cancer screening in the project area, and to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality.